Rock the Bells 2008.

Me, my friend, his two friends from work, and one of their friends went to Rock the Bells at Jones Beach yesterday, and shit was, needless to say, bananas.

So after an hour-plus drive from Jersey to Wantagh, we show up at the amphitheater to find that doors to the main stage open at 2:30.

We were there at a little past 11.

Fortunately, after being momentarily amused by a DJ no one paid attention to, a hip-hop trivia game, some graffiti, and a Burger King recording booth where many a concertgoer spit HOT FIYAH, Rock the Bells had a second stage set up. However, it took us quite a while to find it, as all the signs around the path towards it seemed to implicate it as a VIP area. Bastards.

We came in halfway through Wale's set, and he definitely gave me high hopes for the rest of the day, although to be honest, I don't remember a damn thing from his set. Afterwards, we saw MURS tear down the second stage, as well as bring out New York-appropriate guest Skyzoo (this will be a recurring motif in the concert). They did a song together along with Sky doing one solo, followed by MURS finishing it off with a new song I'm guessing is from his new MURS for President album. Good stuff. We really didn't see anyone on the second stage, except for the end of B.o.B.'s set, where he put Lil Wayne to shame with his guitar skills.

Let's just cut to the main stage activities, shall we?

For some unknown reason, Kidz in the Hall did a set to open the main stage instead of dead prez, and it wasn't a very memorable one thanks to technical difficulties, although I was glad to see Double O alright after his recent troubles, albeit with "one eye and one leg", as he put it. Nothing to write home about anyhow, the sound system still wasn't running at full speed. Just Blaze did come out though, which was interesting.

At this point, I was wondering whether or not dead prez had no-showed, but they did eventually come out, to which the crowd went apeshit. The sound system was still fucked up, but M-1 and stic.man didn't care, they did at least 2 or 3 songs a capella. It eventually got to a point where they went off the stage for a good minute to let the soundman get things correct, but once things got to working, they tore it down. I wasn't really that hyped to see dead prez beforehand, but I'm glad I did.

Next out was Immortal Technique, who brought out a good 5 mic-ed hypemen, although to be fair, I'm pretty sure Akir and Poison Pen were among them. He did "Industrial Revolution" and a few tracks from The 3rd World, but the real high point was when he brought out Akir and Pharoahe Monch (NY-themed special guests continue) to do the hidden track on The 3rd World, "Apocalypse". I was waiting for "Simon Says" to drop, but unfortunately it didn't...yet. Immortal Tech was in full swing with the angry preaching, but left on a positive note and exited through the crowd with his entire posse, which was dope.

De La Soul hit the stage next and were honestly one of my favorite acts of the festival. They did "Potholes in my Lawn", "Stakes Is High" along with a few more from its namesake album, and I even think they did a version of Jay-Z's "Ain't No Nigga" which I thought was crazy. Once they dropped "B.U.D.D.Y.", Q-Tip came out in sweats just to rock his verse. Then they brought out Dres from Black Sheep to do "Flavor of the Month" and "The Choice is Yours", which were crazy. Dres was funny, he commented on how "he wasn't even supposed to fuckin' be here" and that everyone in De La along with him were wearing green, which WAS weird. They closed out with "Rock Co. Kane Flow", with all three of them slowing down to a stop when the beat did. I swear, Dave held a pose for almost two minutes, and the crowd ate it up. They did this three more times, then brought Biz Markie (?!?!) out to do "Nobody Beats the Biz" and the hook to "Just a Friend". Just a feel-good half-hour.

Pharcyde were out next (I think, I'm still exhausted, so the order these guys came out is still a little fuzzy), and didn't disappoint. They did all the songs expected, teased a new Pharcyde album, Fatlip did "What's Up Fatlip?" and Bootie Brown did his verse from that Gorillaz track. I think at one point Slimkid jumped into the front rows and did a verse from the crowd. Glad to see them back together.

Next was Raekwon & Ghostface. I remember "C.R.E.A.M" and "Ice Cream", but I'll be damned if I remember anything else from their set, aside from them bringing their daughters out, which I just thought was weird. I was spacing, what can I tell you.

Mos Def was scheduled for before Chef & Ghost, so I wasn't sure whether Mos Def was going to make it, but he did. He had a borderline-fruity basketball uniform going on, I think it was either an All-Star team one or a straight up space-y Knicks jersey, I couldn't tell. Anyway, he brought out Talib Kweli to run through some Black Star; "Respiration" and "Definition" were MASSIVE. THEN, Mos Def brought Pharoahe Monch back out to do "Simon Says"; if he didn't, it would've been a crime. Once again, not a big fan of Mos Def either, but he killed it.

Meth and Red are Meth and Red, so a monster live show was expected, and they delivered. I'll just throw this out now; they brought out Slick Rick to do a few lines of "Lodi Dodi", DJ Kool to do "Let Me Clear My Throat", along with EPMD AND Keith Murray. Meth did Bring the Pain, his namesake song and the non-Mary version of All I Need, Redman did Time 4 Sum Aksion, Tonite's Da Night and I'll Bee Dat!, and they opened and closed with Da Rockwilder. Couldn't have asked from a better performance, but I'll say this; how many fuckin' shirts does Redman wear? He had like 8 layers of clothing on!

Now, Nas. I'll just say it now, we had to leave before Tribe came on, so this was the high point of our night. It took him quite a while for the live band to get set up, so the crowd did begin the booing a little, but just moments after the discontent became verbal, the band just started rocking and shut them up. Green Lantern hyped up the crowd, and Nas came out to rip shit. The rest of his set was a blur, but he damn near ran through his entire discography.

Oh.

AND JAY-Z SHOWED UP FOR SUCCESS AND BLACK REPUBLICAN!!!!

What else can I say.

It was a good night.